College Station Christmas Parade returns for the second year

The BCS Parade Committee announced on Facebook last year that the 93-year-old tradition would have to be canceled due to medians on Texas Avenue that would prevent floats and marching units from traveling. According to the city of College Station, Texas Avenue is operated and maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation. Thus, the city had no direct control over the median, but did provide input through the Bryan-College Station Metropolitan Planning Organization. After meeting with officials from both cities, College Station announced its own parade and recruited nearly 70 organizations to march.

Now that the city has one parade under its belt and more time for planning than last year, University and Community Relations Manager Barbara Moore said they hope to expand the 2024 parade.

“We hope to see more businesses, nonprofits, dance and cheer groups and look forward to everyone participating this year,” she said. “We reached out to people at Bryan ISD and we also reached out to a number of different community groups and organizations both in Bryan and College Station. Hopefully that will give us good results this year.”

The College Station Christmas Parade through Central Park is officially scheduled for Dec. 7 and will start at 4 p.m. instead of last year’s 2 p.m. start time, which could conflict with the Southeastern Conference football championship game if Texas A&M were to reach it. The event is free to the public and applicants who wish to participate in the parade are not required to pay an entrance fee. Anyone who wants to register for the parade can do so via the city’s website.

“The route is the same as last year. That hasn’t changed, just the timing,” Moore said. “Last year we had so much great support from the community. People from all over came out, supported and jumped right in and helped where they could. We just hope to see more of it this year. This is a community event and we can’t do it without the community.”

Although registration for the parade closes on Wednesday, Moore said they will accept applications submitted a few days late.

“We’re definitely going to be flexible because we know that with the election and then Halloween, it’s just been a delay, and so we’re hoping to give people a little more time to be able to register,” she said. “We are also aware of the possibility that A&M’s football season will coincide around that time this year. We hope that if the Aggies make the SEC championship game, people will come to the parade and then watch the Aggie game.

While everyone is encouraged to register for the parade, Moore said interested parties should remember a few guidelines. All floats must have a holiday theme, must be pre-approved by the city, and can only play holiday music at a reasonable level. Likewise, the city of College Station will stock the only Santa Claus, meaning no lookalikes will be allowed and floats will be limited to less than 15 feet in height and more than 100 feet in length.

“We also don’t allow political campaigns, so if someone runs for office, we can’t allow that. … We just want everyone to have good, clean entries and remember this is a family-friendly event and intended for young eyes and ears,” she said. “We had no problems with that last year. Each group understood the assignment very well and succeeded in putting together a beautiful float or group of demonstrators.”

One of the most notable changes from last year is that for the 2024 parade, floats and groups will be able to participate in a friendly competition where city officials will judge and reward dance/cheer groups, marching bands, mounted units and floats for creativity and more. First place will be the best overall entry, second place will be awarded to the best entry for originality and creativity and third place will be awarded to the jury’s choice.

“We don’t necessarily have a theme, but we also look at how well the floats are structured and put together, and how they generally captured what they were trying to do,” Moore said. “Hopefully we can get people to come out, join the parade and just stroll over to Christmas in the Park and celebrate with the lights on.”

Although the initial cancellation of the BCS Christmas Parade was very disappointing, Moore said they look forward to continuing the College Station Christmas Parade to provide families from all cities with a get-together during the holidays.

“When it was first announced that we would not be able to hold the BCS Christmas Parade due to the median, there was a deep sadness in the community because it is a tradition for parents, grandparents and children to go and watch that event. she said. “We really hope that we can provide another great opportunity for the community to come out and experience some Christmas fun and cheer, to really get into the spirit of the season that we love so much.”

The City of Bryan will host its own Christmas Parade in downtown Bryan the following week on Thursday, December 12. The illuminated parade starts at 7pm and registrations are open until 5pm on Monday 25 November on a first come, first basis. served basic.